Native name ஸ்ரீனிவாச ராமானுஜன்

Born 22 December 1887

Erode, Madras Presidency (nowTamil Nadu)

Died 26 April 1920 (aged 32)

Chetput, Madras, Madras Presidency (now

Tamil Nadu)

Residence Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu

Nationality Indian

Fields Mathematics

Alma mater Government Arts College

Pachaiyappa's College

Academic G. H. Hardy

advisors J. E. Littlewood

Known for Landau–Ramanujan constant

Mock theta functions

Ramanujan conjecture

Ramanujan prime

Ramanujan–Soldner constant

Ramanujan theta function

Ramanujan's sum

Rogers–Ramanujan identities

Ramanujan's master theorem

Influences G. H. Hardy

The number 1729 is known as the Hardy–Ramanujan number after a famous anecdote of the British
mathematician G. H. Hardy regarding a visit to the hospital to see Ramanujan. In Hardy's words:[90]
 “ I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab
number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I
hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. 'No', he replied, 'it is a very interesting number;
it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.' ”
The two different ways are

1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103.

Generalizations of this idea have created the notion of "taxicab numbers". Coincidentally, 1729
is also a Carmichael number.